Kaede Satori had been shot before.
It wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't new. You clench your teeth, keep moving, and hope the bleeding waits until you're finished.
This time, it didn't wait.
One sharp pain, one flare of heat, one ragged breath—
—then blackness.
She expected the black to stay.
Instead, Kaede's thoughts floated in an endless, silvery-blue haze, weightless and calm, as if she'd been peeled away from her body and left adrift. She had no sense of time. No pain. No mission.
When a voice—not male, not female, but heavy with authority—spoke in her mind, she almost didn't respond.
> Your service is not yet complete.
Before she could ask whose service, the haze dissolved.
---
Kaede woke up under an unfamiliar sky.
It was the bluest blue she'd ever seen—so pure it made Earth's atmosphere look like it needed cleaning. Around her stretched a shoreline of smooth white stone, and beyond that, towers of glass and gold reached into the clouds.
Her military instincts took over.
One, assess surroundings: no threats. Two, check gear: no weapons. Three, locate nearest command post: unknown.
A shadow fell over her. She turned, half-expecting an enemy soldier, and instead found…
A woman. Too perfect to be real. Her features were precise like they'd been sculpted, her eyes a shade of crystalline teal that no human iris could naturally manage.
"Welcome to Azuran Prime," the woman said, in flawless but oddly formal Earth Common. "You've been selected for continuation under the Primal Instinct Recovery Program."
Kaede squinted. "That sounds… suspiciously like conscription."
The woman smiled like someone who'd just been handed a kitten. "Not quite. You've been granted citizenship. You'll receive a local designation shortly."
---
### A Name Too Long for Any ID Card
Azuran names were… complicated. Kaede's new one was Renvall Erythra Cael·Kaede of Sector Aurelia.
Apparently, "Renvall" linked her to the gene cluster she'd been assigned, "Erythra" marked her city of integration, "Cael" was the connection to her genetic sponsors, and "Kaede" was the "personal variant identifier."
She kept the Kaede part. Everything else was just… there.
Azurans didn't seem to care if you shortened your name, but for official forms, the full monstrosity had to be written out. She could already feel her handwriting cramping.
---
### A World With Nothing to Fear
Over the next few days, Kaede learned more.
Azuran Prime was rich—obscenely so. Energy was endless. Food was perfect and free. No one farmed; machines handled everything. No one fought; there was nothing to fight over.
In three hundred years of average lifespan, Azurans never faced war, famine, or plague. And they seemed fine with it.
Too fine.
Kaede noticed the softness in their movements, the relaxed eyes, the lazy posture. Their muscles were there for show, not for use. Even the younger citizens drifted through their days as if they had no reason to hurry.
Which, to be fair, they didn't.
---
### The Only War That Still Exists
The only thing keeping Azuran military tradition alive was the Combat Sphere Network—an immense, full-sensory simulation linking warriors' minds into battlefields so vast they made real wars look like skirmishes.
It was part sport, part training, part… cultural preservation. Without it, the last remnants of discipline and tactical thinking might vanish entirely.
There was, however, one peculiar rule.
The Combat Spheres were open almost exclusively to women under a certain cognitive threshold of "youthfulness." Official reports claimed it was due to neural plasticity, but Kaede suspected there was more to it—especially when she noticed how much of the military's promotional material looked like fashion advertising.
Whether she liked it or not, she qualified. Which meant she was expected to represent Sector Aurelia in the next Sphere cycle.
Kaede folded her arms, looking out at the glowing towers of her new home.
A peaceful planet.
No real enemies.
Simulated war instead of real war.
Her lips curled in the faintest smirk.
> "Alright then. If this world's only battlefield is a game, I'll just win the game."